by Ann, Natalie
“So he got mad and told a lie. Started a rumor with the guys that you were sleeping with him?” he asked, but he’d heard that much.
“Yeah. That’s what he said.”
“Tell me the rest then, because obviously that isn’t what caused you to leave your job.”
***
Brynn took a deep breath, ready to bare it all to Alec. She knew he believed what she was saying so far. It was just that she didn’t want to hash out one of the lowest points in her life. She spent months in fear, then years beating herself up over what she could have done differently to have prevented things.
She was who she was, and she didn’t want to change. All those years of looking back, she just figured she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now she knew differently.
“No. I handled Larry, or so I’d thought. I’d worked there for close to two years by that point. I’d had other men ask me out and flirt with me, but I always said no. I thought everyone understood. I didn’t want anyone to ever say I didn’t earn my job, that I slept my way to the top.”
“I don’t think anyone would believe that of you.”
“Alec,” she said impatiently, “some things never change. Even Kyle made that assumption. You can’t change narrow-mindedness.”
“No, you can’t.”
She reached over and threaded her fingers through his, needing the contact more than ever. Her emotions were all over the place. She never wanted to talk about this again, and here she sat telling the man she loved about the night that all her dreams came crashing down on her, the night that filled her head with nightmares for months.
Her mind drifted back to the past. She was walking through the site, her clipboard in her hand, just checking to make sure everything had been completed on time. Some of the men grumbled over getting their orders from her, but they still did the work…after she had to push and prod them. She knew she had to wear them down and she was. She was stubborn and just wanted to succeed way too much to let bullheadedness stand in her way.
She’d heard a noise behind her. She’d thought she was the only one on the site. Most of the men had left almost thirty minutes ago, but when she turned there was no one there. So she made her way to the second level and into another room. Everything was looking good and she was checking things off her list.
Suddenly she heard a footstep and turned to see Kevin. A slow fear rose up her back. “Did you forget something?” There was something about Kevin she couldn’t put her finger on, but it was enough to make her leery in the past and more so now.
He smiled a smile that made her pause. The hair on her arms rose when he talked to her and now was no exception. “I left my phone on the windowsill.”
She turned and saw it there just like he said, then walked over and grabbed it and brought it to him. She figured he would take it and leave, only he didn’t. He reached for it and wrapped his hand around hers and didn’t let go. “You can let go of my hand,” she told him firmly.
“I don’t think so. Seems to me you’re giving it away. Maybe I’ll take some of it.”
Her eyes shot up, fear crawling up her spine. Everything she learned over the years was flooding her brain and she started to look around the room for an escape. Trying to remain calm, she said, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but it’s time you left. I’ve got work to finish up.”
“You’ve got time still,” he said, smirking at her. She’d always thought he was good-looking, but there was a coldness in his eyes that had always turned her off, made him almost sinister. Now she knew. She should have gone with her gut; she should have walked out when he came in. Too late, now he was blocking her exit.
She tried to tug her hand away, but he wasn’t letting go. Instead he backed her against the wall and pinned her there with his body. Before she could think, he lowered his mouth on hers. Angrily, he sought to take what she wasn’t willing to give.
Turning her head away only seemed to encourage him, like he thought she was playing hard to get. “What? You can give it to the other guys, but not me?” he growled at her, and lowered his head again.
This time she relaxed her body and the minute he tried to force her mouth open she bit his lip hard. Tasting the blood, she tried to push him away, but he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back, the pain in her scalp nothing compared to the terror of knowing that if she didn’t do something fast, he was going to hurt her even more.
Remembering the clipboard in her hand, she twisted her body enough, freed her arm and hit him upside the head with it. It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, as it only turned his eyes a deeper shade of mean. Before she could make another move, he backhanded her and her head hit the wall. She let out a scream as loud as she could, praying someone would hear, but she knew no one was around.
She tasted the blood inside of her mouth, some of it pooling out. He only laughed at her. “How does it feel to get a bloody lip? I guess we’re even right now.”
She knew that if she didn’t act fast, she would lose her chance. She had only one shot to escape. He grabbed her again and shoved her with more force against the wall, causing her head to bounce off it again.
Now or never. She twisted down and grabbed the two by four against the wall as fast as she could and swung with everything she had, hitting him right under the arm he was using to reach for her. She heard the disgusting sound of bones breaking and didn’t care. She thought for sure he would go down, but he didn’t.
He yelled out in pain and grabbed his side. “Bitch! You’re going to pay for that.”
She was trapped and knew it. She had to get by him to get to the door. She still had the two by four in her hand, but he was reaching for one of his own. He was bigger and stronger than her, and the odds were stacking up against her.
It was a game of cat and mouse. She moved to one side, and he followed, taunting her. “We’ve got all night as far as I’m concerned. If you want to play rough I’m good with that. I like it that way. It seems to me so do you.”
She swung the piece of wood at him again, but he ducked and moved to the side, wrapping his arm around her waist. She was twisting and turning, kicking out and screaming, but it didn’t matter. She saw everything flash before her. She knew he was going to rape her, maybe even kill her. He looked evil enough right now to do anything.
Closing her eyes, she just prayed it would be over fast. He ran his tongue down the side of her neck, teasing her, prolonging it and she thought she was going to get sick.
She wanted to shout, “Just do it, and get it over with” but bit her tongue. She wouldn’t make it easy for him, but she wasn’t sure what she could do right now either. His hand came to the front of her, gripping her breast hard and popping a few buttons, exposing her bra to him. She started to twist and turn and fight back again, anything she could to get out of his arms, but he only tightened his grip on her more, turning her around to face him.
That’s when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye behind Kevin’s back. Before she could make a sound, she was landing hard on the ground on her elbow and rapping her head against the floor again. She saw stars this time, but when she opened her eyes and focused, she saw Pete standing over her. He had another piece of wood in his hand and he’d knocked Kevin out with it.
“Are you okay?” he asked reaching down for her.
She only nodded, afraid she would burst into tears. She just wanted to get out of there.
“Let’s go.” He grabbed her arm and helped her up.
“What about Kevin?” she asked, gripping the front of her shirt together. She really didn’t care, but she didn’t think they should just leave him there. What if he was dead? “Should we call the police?”
“He can rot in hell for all I care. Let’s get out of here.” They heard Kevin moan and start to move, so they left as fast as they could.
Life
Alec was furious, livid, distraught and sickened, all at the same time. He couldn’t stop looking at h
er right now. He knew she was fine—it happened years ago—only he couldn’t get the image of what happened to her out of his head.
He had to know one thing. “Please tell me that bastard is in jail right now.”
The tears rolled down her face. He watched her swallow once. “No. It’s complicated.”
“Are you kidding me? How is the fact that he assaulted you complicated?” He was completely baffled over her statement.
“I had Pete take me home. He wanted to take me to the hospital, but I said no. I was sickened by what happened. I felt dirty and just wanted to forget about it. Pete and I argued, but he was still a kid, so he did what I asked. He wanted to stay with me, but I said I was fine, so he left.”
“Brynn, are you kidding me? You were attacked and almost raped. You would have been, if Pete hadn’t interfered, and you went home alone?” Pete was forever going to be in his debt after this. That guy just earned himself one hell of a promotion.
“Alec, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted to be alone and I didn’t want anyone to know what happened. I felt ashamed. I wasn’t to blame and deep down I knew that, but I blamed myself for being in that position. I knew better than to be alone. I never completely felt comfortable about him, yet I didn’t listen to my gut.”
“Please don’t even think of blaming yourself. That’s crazy and you know it.” He wasn’t sure what was ticking him off more right now. What happened to her, or that she thought it was somehow her fault.
He watched as she wiped the tears out of her eyes. “I know, but I wasn’t thinking that night. I went home and took a shower. I needed to wipe away the night and what happened to me.”
He closed his eyes in frustration. That was the worst thing she could have done. “You know better than that.”
“I did, but in that situation I had to clean his hands off of me—the feeling of him on me. I wasn’t thinking rationally.”
Alec guessed he understood. He should be thankful that she wasn’t scared of men after that. But he’d never seen any sign of her being skittish around him or any of the men on the crew. “So tell me about this complicated part.”
“Shortly after I got out of the shower there was a knock at my door. I didn’t want to answer it and I wasn’t going to. That’s when I realized how stupid I was to go home alone afterward. But it was the police. I thought maybe Pete had called them, except I thought wrong.”
He wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. “Why were they there?”
“They were at my door to arrest me for assault, for attacking Kevin.”
“What?!” he roared. It was a good thing he didn’t know her at that time in her life. He’d be the one in jail now for killing that bastard Kevin.
“Lower your voice,” she said.
“Really? That’s what you’re saying to me? Get real, Brynn.”
“If you want to know what happened, then calm down. Remember, this was years ago. I’m fine now, you can see that, so rein it in,” she ordered him. “It’s not like he’s here for you to go after him.”
“I better never come face-to-face with him, either.”
“I doubt you ever will. He moved out of the area, last I knew. Anyway, I broke down in tears when they told me they were there to arrest me. They could clearly see the bruises all over my arms and my face. I told them what happened and they believed me.”
“I would think so,” he said, snorting.
“My bruises were consistent with my story, even with his injuries. He’d gone to the ER, and the hospital had called the police. My guess is Kevin would have never said a word had he not been as injured as he was. He needed stitches in his head and had a couple of busted ribs. He would have been embarrassed that a woman did that to him, so he would have kept everything to himself if he had a choice.”
“Then what happened?” Alec was growing tired of this. He wanted to pace, but every time he went to stand she pulled him back down.
“The police told me it was still his word against mine. Both of us were telling different stories and both of our injuries could have been from self-defense, even though they said they believed me. I told them about Pete. I even called Pete and put him on speakerphone so the police could hear. In the end Pete went to the Station and gave a statement. The police drove me in also. After a few hours, I was released, and no charges were brought against me. I pressed charges on him.”
Thank God she did. If she said she didn’t press charges he might have to shake her himself. “Then why isn’t he in jail right now?”
“He was in jail for a short period of time. He had no prior arrests and got out early. He moved away afterward.”
“That doesn’t explain why you left your job. This wasn’t your fault. Were you too afraid to go back?”
“No, not at all. I went back to work a week later. Larry’s father, David, came to see me the day after the incident. He paid all the legal fees, and obviously Kevin was fired on the spot. David was sorry and said he felt guilty that it happened to me—to one of his employees. He wanted to make it right.”
“He thought paying your legal fees would make up for you almost being raped?” Alec asked, disgusted.
“I didn’t know anything about Larry’s part in this until tonight. Even thinking about it now, who is to say Kevin wouldn’t have tried anyway?”
“You don’t really believe that, do you, Brynn? You even said that Kevin commented on how you were giving it away.”
Brynn dropped her shoulders. “I know. It’s hard to process it all now. Still, I can be thankful for one thing that David did.”
“What’s that?” Alec couldn’t think of one damn thing the Walker family did that Brynn could be thankful for.
“After a few weeks back on the job, it was obvious everyone was uncomfortable with what happened. I tried to make it work, but it wasn’t. The men were steering clear of me, no one wanted to get in my way, they were all eying me like I was fragile and was going to break. Maybe they all feared they would get fired if they said the wrong thing to me. I really didn’t know. So I told David that I had to leave. He asked what I was going to do and I told him I would get my real estate license. It was the only thing I could think of that I might enjoy.”
“How can you be thankful to him for that?”
“He kept me as an employee while I went to get the license even though I didn’t actually work. He paid for everything, including the classes and license. I told you he took care of all of my legal fees too. But even then, all of that wouldn’t have made me thankful to him. What I’m thankful for is that all of those things brought me to you.”
She was trying to distract him. He still wasn’t sure his mind was ready to go in another direction right now. It was hard to break away from the range of emotions he’d felt just now. Anger, fear, disgust and now love. “I would have liked it to have brought you to me another way.”
“True, but it made me who I am and gave me the skill set you needed. After I got my license, I sold all of his builds, you know that. I know you checked my references, or someone at Harper’s did. I stayed in touch with David all along, and he helped me build my client base. I always thought he felt guilt about what happened to me as an employee of his.”
“No, he felt guilt that his son was such a douche and played a part in what happened to you.”
“You’re probably right, but still, everything has come full circle. Don’t you think?”
He leaned across the chair and pulled her closer to him and into his arms and then onto his lap. “Yeah. I guess so. I still don’t like knowing what happened to you back then, or the fact that you never told me. You should have. Why didn’t you?”
He watched as she hedged, then lowered her head and whispered, “I didn’t want you to look at me differently, like I was tainted or dirty for what happened to me.”
He pushed her back on his lap and stared into her eyes, appalled she would think that of him or anyone for that matter. “Why in the hell would you think I’d fee
l that way?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Others had in the past. It took me months to date again, and even then it was a battle to not jump at times. When I explained why I was jumpy, the guy I was dating cringed and looked at me like it was my fault it happened. I felt ashamed with the way he made me feel, like I’d asked for it working where I did, around all the guys. I never told another person after that.”
He didn’t know what to say. He should have realized that this strong woman would have shouldered it and fought through it on her own without leaning on anyone for help. “The more I know, the more I wish you would’ve let me rearrange Larry’s face.”
She choked out a laugh, opened her mouth to speak but never got a word out.
“He’s right. You should have let him hit Larry.”
“Dad!” Brynn jumped up and rushed over to Andy’s side where her father was lying there with his eyes open. Brynn reached for his face, running her hands across it. “Dad, do you know who I am?”
“What the hell kind of question is that? Of course I do,” Andy rasped out with more snarl than Alec had ever seen before. Then again, if Andy had heard everything that had been said, not to mention the amount of pain he was probably in, his attitude made sense.
“Let me get the doctor.” She stood up to leave.
“No. Stay with your father. I’ll go get him, and I’ll find Drew too.”
***
An hour later Brynn was allowed to go back in and see her father along with Drew and Alec. The swelling had gone down even more, and though her father was in pain, he was pretty lucid and cranky on top of it.
“When can I get out of here?” he asked Brynn.
“The doctor said not for a few more days.” She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, careful of the IVs hanging from his arm. “Can you tell us what happened? Do you remember?”
“I don’t remember much, nothing more than I went up to knock some ice off the roof. The ladder slipped on me and I thought I righted it, but obviously not.”
